6^th and final partner meeting in Stuttgart 10.-11.07.2023

The second partner meeting in May 2021 was a good start for product development!

Because of Corona, the second meeting was held online. It is a pity because the partners like each other very much and would have been looking forward to a face-to-face meeting. Nevertheless, due to the positive working atmosphere between the partners, a very productive meeting was also possible online.

The literature research was already completed at this point and the final report was almost ready. Therefore, the partners could already discuss the first ideas about the future program.

The partners agreed to work on three different areas related to our topic “Communicare – improving communication skills as a useful tool for family caregivers in long-term care for the elderly”. The ideas are direct results taken from the final report of the literature review and cover the most important competencies of caregivers.

The following three topics were identified by the partners:

1. introduction to the basic principles of effective communication.
2. basic principles and methods of communication in different chronic diseases, illustrated by dementia diseases.
3. communication in the new age of social media and technological advances in the environment to support an age-friendly environment.

Furthermore, a digital game was brought up by the Greek partner, which needed further discussion.

All partners agreed that in addition to a comprehensive manual of the above topics, all content must already be developed in digital form. This to be able to provide the necessary digital content for the digital platform.

So, the partners decided to form working groups. A first working group dealt with the creation of the curriculum. This was to determine exactly what content was to be developed. This curriculum was the basis for all further steps that had to be initiated and developed.

It is therefore fair to say that this meeting in May 2021 was one of the central meetings to ensure the right decisions for the further positive course of the project and product development.

A big thank you goes to all partners for the excellent content work and for the great cooperation among each other!

Between 1 and 2 of March 2023, the transnational project meeting of COMMUNICARE project in Patras took place. It was organized as a hybrid meeting and all participants had the chance to convene on the progress of the project’s remaining tasks.

In general, it was discussed the finalization of the project’s interactive platform, and the gathering and analysis of the evaluation questionnaires. Also it was stipulated the structure of the sustainability National plans attributed to each project partner, since we are in the final part of the project, where sustainability should reach its peak. To this end, the Multiplier events aiming to enhance the dissemination outreach of the project were also analyzed.

Finally, partners defined the form, logistics and lectures of the International conference to be held in Stuttgart in mid July 2023.

All partners expressed their satisfaction with the results of the project, and they all agreed on finding new opportunities to continue the partnership, through the further exploitation of COMMUNICARE platform, and through investing in a new Erasmus plus project proposal.

Communicare lands in Greece for second 2022 event and train-the-trainer event

Partners from Germany (Wohlfahrtswerk für Baden-Württemberg, DHBW), Italy (COOSS), Greece (Frontida Zois, University of the Aegean), and Austria ( BFI) gathered in Karlovasi, Samos Island, for the second transnational meeting of Communicare, an Erasmus Plus program project designed to improve caregivers’ communication skills in long-term care of the elderly. 

The meeting took place from September 12 to 15, 2022 and was the second annual in-person meeting after the one in Ancona. This transnational project meeting also coincided with the project’s train-the-trainer event.  

It was a very important opportunity to discuss the online platform on which Communicare is being developed, the content, project dissemination, and in general all the crucial aspects to be developed in the immediate future. In order for the project team to be able to register and address comments and observations based on the functionality and requirements of the e-learning platform, made by the trainers-experts, the meeting in Greece turned out to be an excellent opportunity to expose the workshops related to the 4 learning paths that will enrich the platform. 

Specifically: COOSS and DHBW covered the ‘Introduction to the basic principles of effective communication, BFI had the opportunity to delve into learning Path 2 – Basic principles and methods of communication in chronic disease along the case of dementia, Frontida Zois and Wohlfahrtswerk für Baden-Württemberg on the other hand delved into the part related to Communication in the new era of instant messaging, video calls and technological advances to support an age-friendly environment. 

The game, the last learning path, was taken care of by University of the Aegean, but all partners and trainer experts had a chance to express their opinion and view the potential of the platform again. 

These insights were not developed exclusively through face-to-face lectures; in fact, all participants had the opportunity to compare and discuss the content, the manual, and the whole outcome of the research conducted.

 Not only that, the Communicare team analysed the actual usability of the platform and in a second moment two other very important points were deepened such as: sustainability and dissemination. 

This important aspect was started right in Greece and brought to completion at the end of 2022. In addition to traditional articles made in written form, video interviews were conducted with the contact persons of some partners. Ruth Dankbar, Christos Goumopoulos and Ute Schulz explained in detail what Communicare consists of. Another important piece to give the project the right visibility. 

The first in-person meeting of the Communicare project was held in Italy.

Kick-Off Meeting 21.10.2020

After the start of the Communicare project in September 2020 the Kick-off meeting was held online due to the Covid pandemic. On the 21^st of October 2020 partners from Austria (Berufsförderungsintsitut Oberösterreich; BFI), Italy (Marche Cooperativa Sociale Onlus; COOSS), Greece (Fontida Zois & University of the Aegean; UAegean) and Germany (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg; DHBW & Wohlfahrtswerk für Baden-Württemberg; WW) met to get to know each other and build reliable working relationships. Therefore they introduced themselves and their organisations including background and experiences useful for the project. The partners also discussed the project goals, intellectual outputs and methods to reach the objectives. Furthermore they outlined a dissemination plan to raise awareness and the impact of the project.

The next step is to do a country specific in depth-research to form a baseline study and to create the project website.